Parihaka will finally get a formal apology and $9 million for its future development.

The people of Parihaka say a reconciliation package and Crown apology will offer a ‘new dawn’ for the community almost 140 years after the settlement was violently invaded for acts of passive resistance against land confiscations.

Chief Justice Sian Elias and Attorney General Chris Finlayson will be at the Taranaki township for the historic reconciliation ceremony tomorrow – which includes an apology for the Crown’s treatment of Parihaka in the late 1800s – including the invasion of the settlement in 1881 and the imprisonment of Parihaka leaders Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kakahi.

Te Whiti and Tohu were considered pioneers of passive resistance and have been linked to the use of the same approach by Mahatma Gandhi against British rule in India.